clearing out the scanned folder - dodger edition

scans of cards sometimes languish in my scanned folder. newly acquired cards or cards i've stumbled upon while going through my collection get scanned sometimes without a true purpose.  these are such cards.

2008 donruss playoff prime cuts don sutton

aside from the infield, i think sutton might the guy that i am most pleased to see pop up in new releases.

1993 topps stadium club mitch webster

at one time, i thought about doing a full on mitch webster series.  for some reason, i consider him to be perhaps the most obscure dodger to be featured on the most number of cards.

2001 upper deck legends gary sheffield

sheff had some monster seasons for the dodgers

2000 topps gallery gary sheffield

this is a fantastic card. i love that topps kept the photo even though the netting is visible in the foreground.

1992 silver star hologram dodger stadium card (front)

and back

i believe it was night owl that brought this must-have for my dodger stadium card collection to my attention. it was a giveaway back in 1992 when i was busy studying for finals and getting ready to graduate from college instead of paying attention to promotions at chavez ravine.

2005 bowman brian sprout

2005 bowman brian sprout gold parallel

2005 bowman chrome brian sprout

sprout is the head coach at the local high school these days.  i've met him a couple of times, but never mentioned that i have some of his cards.

1996 pinnacle zenith mike piazza

and 1997 fleer circa mike piazza (back)

it sure looks to me that the back of the circa card is a reverse negative and not a purposefully done lefty switch that fleer did on some of their other cards.

2002 topps super teams 1955 brooklyn dodgers (duke snider, pee wee reese, and jackie robinson)

the red numbers are missing (they were added to the jerseys in 1952), and so is gil hodges.  this super teams set flew under the radar, and i don't know how i came across the few cards i have in my set from it.  anybody else recall this set?

it's not alway as good the second time around

do you remember seeing these things back in 1996?  the pinnacle zenith moziacs?

i did not own one, but was made aware of them somehow.  i thought they looked pretty cool, but was probably more seduced by their perceived rarity - 1 in 10 packs (although i didn't buy more than one or two packs, so i figured they were less prevalent than that).

the 1996 version is buoyed by the presence of three-fifths of the five straight rookies of the year - raul mondesi, mike piazza, and hideo nomo (eric karros and todd hollandsworth, not shown).  two of those three guys were home grown dodgers, with nomo joining as a free agent.
then, in 2005, donruss revived the moziac as part of their zenith release, and the dodgers' version of the card featured jeff kent, milton bradley, and jd drew.

a less dynamic design, coupled with the fact that all three of those guys were free agent signees and turned out to be dodger short-timers for the most part, make me fairly amibivalent toward the card.

also from donruss in 2005, i have this prime patches milton bradley autograph

i picked it up back around the time it was released, as i was rooting pretty hard for bradley to succeed.  even after he was traded to oakland, san diego, seattle, and chicago - i kept hoping for the best.  now he's facing some serious charges and it's apparent that the best is already gone from the realm of possibilities.

back to the mozaics - if panini were to revive it today, would they go with matt kemp, clayton kershaw, and andre ethier? or would it be adrian gonzalez, zack greinke, and hanley ramirez.  i know which one i would prefer.

going oppo

here's the 9th installment in the countdown to spring training.  i'm using the 1979 post raisin bran steve garvey's baseball tips cards as a weekly windown to baseball.  this week, the garv waxes poetic about one of his favorite pastimes - hitting to the opposite field.

the cartoon sketch doesn't seem to match the text - that front foot looks like it is pointed directly up the middle.  anyway, i took a look through some of my collection to see if i could find examples of guys hitting to the opposite field.  i found tom candiotti possibly doing it on his 1995 ud collector's choice card

although he might have just swung late.  todd benzinger looks to be flailing at the outside pitch on his 1992 topps traded card

but john lindsey seems to have the 'inside-out' part of the swing down on his 2011 bowman card

here's a nice example of moving the runner over by going the opposite way, assuming the batter was right-handed.  it's bobby higginson's 2003 topps card

in which he is advancing to third base on a grounder to the second baseman.  i really like this card - it reminds me a bit of the 1995 topps raul mondesi card which is one of my all-time faves.

speaking of mondesi, the back of his 1996 pinnacle zenith card gives us a lesson in the opposite of going the opposite way

only 10% of mondy's hits in 1995 were to right field, and none of his home runs went that direction.  contrast that with mike piazza

who hit about one-third of his base hits to right, including the same number of home runs that he pulled to left.  that's some opposite field prowess right there.

i'll finish up with a 2012 topps gypsy queen matt kemp mini, upon which the bison is tracking a ball that he has just sent to the opposite field

only about 3 weeks left until spring training starts!

group breakin'

so i participated in the daily dimwit's november break, which consisted of 2006 upper deck artifacts.  i did this even though the only dodger base cards in the set were survivor jeff kent

and rookie tim hamulack

complete team set achieved!

i was kinda hoping for some good karma and landing the padres as my randomly assigned team (steve garvey is a padre and has some inserts in the set), but instead i got the team that probably has the fewest fans, the marlins.

as such, i am stuck with cards of a 2012 triple crown winner

and a 2012 silver slugger

i did manage to pick up a numbered relic

break over!

before all of that, however, i took part in ryan's group break over at 'o' no not another oriole blog.  this one featured 1994 topps finest and 1996 pinnacle zenith, among other releases.

as a result, tom candiotti gets to be featured on the blog

as does orel hershiser

and jose offerman

as for the zenith, there was karim garcia

because, you know, it was 1996 and karim garcia cards were in high demand

vladdy's big brother wilton

was also prominently featured in sets around this time, and zenith is no exception.

i also received chan ho park

limbering up for an ultimate fighting match with tim belcher

as well as ismael valdes

and another member of the dodgers' internationally staffed pitching rotation, hideo nomo

i also got the nomo 'honor roll' subset card

as well as the mike piazza 'honor roll' card.

my other team in this break was the reds.  there are a few more reds fans than marlins fans, so maybe i can find someone to trade with.

thanks for hosting the breaks, guys!